Blast in Russia's Dagestan kills government minister

The World - In Brief

May 21, 2005

MAKHACHKALA, Russia -- A bomb exploded in an apartment building in Russia's Dagestan region Friday, killing a local government minister and his bodyguard, law-enforcement authorities said. Zagir Arukhov, Dagestan's minister for ethnic policy, information and external relations, was killed by a blast in the entranceway to the building where he lived in the regional capital, Makhachkala. Dagestan is a volatile mix of dozens of ethnic groups, and Arukhov, 45, became minister for ethnic policy after his predecessor was killed in August 2003 by unknown assailants who blew up his car. A mostly Muslim region on the Caspian Sea, Dagestan borders Chechnya and is plagued by violence, some linked to the war between Russian forces and Chechen rebels and some to local criminals.